


Take Your Teeth & Lets Get Going

by occultclysms



Category: EXO (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Creatures & Monsters, Ghosts, Grave Robbers, M/M, Terminal Illnesses, Violence
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-18
Updated: 2020-09-18
Packaged: 2021-03-07 23:07:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,634
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26525716
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/occultclysms/pseuds/occultclysms
Summary: Jongdae has lost his father and mother, so when his brother falls ill, he agrees to collect teeth in exchange for a wish from a 'witch.' There he meets a grave robber, Sehun, who wants to avenge his father. Together they fight creatures of the night for teeth.
Relationships: Kim Jongdae | Chen/Oh Sehun
Comments: 2
Kudos: 15
Collections: EXOventure Round 1 2020





	Take Your Teeth & Lets Get Going

**Author's Note:**

> i would like to thank the mods so much for giving me a million extensions ;;;; and even though i didn't finish completely, i think there will only be one other chapter which i hope to get out soon ^^

Jongdae never liked graveyards. Something about them always made him feel awkward and uncomfortable. Every time he would step off the path even a little bit, he would feel like he was stepping on someone’s soul and disrespecting their grave. Jongdae’s older brother, Jongdeok, had no such qualms. He would run through the graveyard like it was his own personal playground.

How Jongdeok could do that, Jongdae had zero clue. But it wasn't like Jongdae wasn't familiar with cemeteries. In fact, he spent a stupid amount of time in them as a young kid. When he was five, his aunt died, so they had to go and pay their respects of course, but Jongdae didn't really understand anything that was going on. Neither did Jongdeok to be honest. Jongdeok was only two years older than Jongdae, and it wasn't like you learned something magical at age seven, so they were in the same boat.

Back then, Jongdae was still small enough to stay only with his mother as they walked along the path. Jongdeok got told off several times for wandering around the gravesite by both of their parents.

Jongdeok had whined and said he should be allowed to walk anywhere he likes because 'they're dead anyway, what's the big deal?' And oh boy, that was the wrong answer. Jongdae's mom had stopped them right there to lecture Jongdeok about the importance of respecting the dead and Jongdeok had nodded as though he understood, but Jongdae knew he didn't take what they said that seriously.

Whereas Jongdae took it too seriously.

Jongdae was the type of person to enter an old house and say a quick prayer for any ghosts that may be lingering around the building. Yes, Jongdae believes in ghosts.

While on that same trip to the cemetery, Jongdae is convinced that he saw a ghost. He doesn't care that he was five, or that logically speaking, ghosts aren't real; he saw a motherfucking ghost. Just sitting on top of a tombstone, there was a woman dressed in very retro clothing. Right before Jongdae could say something to his mom about how there's a woman chilling on a grave which is very disrespectful, a gust of wind blew her away. Jongdae had stared open-mouthed at the gravestone long enough for his mother to say something and make sure he was still paying attention. Jongdae had snapped to attention and shut his mouth quickly. Even as a young boy, he knew that what he saw wasn’t normal and he shouldn’t say anything as no one would believe him at all.

Jongdae’s ability to see ghosts didn’t go away. In fact, he started seeing more and more ghosts as he grew up and began to go to more places than just school. When he was fifteen, the guy he was seeing convinced him to come with him to a cemetery to make out because it would be “fun.” 

It was not fun. 

Jongdae had sat in his lap, and had been kissing him when he felt a hand on his shoulder, and when he turned around there was a motherfucking ghost. 

Thinking back, Jongdae isn’t sure if the ghost ever said anything to him, but one thing he knows for sure is that the ghost didn’t like that Jongdae was making out in their cemetery. Whether it was because of Jongdae being gay or because teenagers kissing in cemeteries is kinda offensive to ghosts, Jongdae will never know. Namely, because Jongdae avoids that part of the cemetery like the plague.

Funnily enough, Jongdae’s makeout spot and where he had seen his first ghost were very close together. The first ghost was right off the path between the graves and the makeout spot was a dozen yards away under a large oak tree.

△▼△▼n̶ ̶e̶ ̶v̶ ̶e̶ ̶r̶ ̶( ͜。 ͡ʖ ͜。) ̶m̶ ̶i̶ ̶n̶ ̶d̶ △▼△▼

“Jongdae,” Jongdeok calls. “Come play games with me~ I’m bored.” Jongdae closes his laptop and hops up, walking down the hall to Jongdeok’s room. Jongdeok’s room is exactly like Jongdae’s room-- if you added a bunch of personality. There’s posters of rock bands all over the walls, a large bookshelf, displays of photos, awards and other creations. 

Jongdeok is an artist of just about every variety and that’s something Jongdae has always been jealous about. Jongdeok could pick up any instrument, paint brush, or sander and create something beautiful. Jongdae would never tell him, but he really looks up to his brother and his talent.

“Alright, I will play video games with you,” Jongdae says and Jongdeok cheers, but Jongdae holds up a finger. “Only if you do the dishes tonight. Because I have school stuff to do and am choosing to spend my time here with you.” Jongdae really *did* have schoolwork to do, but he’s avoiding it. Which is a fact that Jongdeok doesn’t need to know. Jongdeok whines and pouts at Jongdae. As if an eighteen year old could still pull off being cute.

“Fine, but then I get to choose what game we play,” Jongdeok counters, eagerly holding out a controller to Jongdae. Jongdae snatches it from him and plops down on Jongdeok’s bed.

“What game do you want to play?”

“Super Smash Bros would be fun, but I could easily kick your ass at Street Fighter. Oh, Until Dawn is always fun and you haven’t played through every ending yet,” Jongdeok rambles, looking over his stack of video games like a set of precious first edition novels rather than some teenage entertainment.

“Just pick one--” Jongdae is interrupted by his mother screaming in pain and a thump of someone falling onto the hardwood floor. Both Jongdae and Jongdeok are up in an instant and rushing downstairs to see what’s wrong. 

Jongdae reaches the bottom of the stairs first and stares in horror at his mom laying on her side with blood on one side of her head. Jongdae’s dad is holding her hand and on the phone with what Jongdae assumes is 911.

Jongdae is frozen, standing in the hallway, looking down at his mother on the ground mumbling incoherently. Jongdeok pushes past Jongdae and goes to try and get his mom’s attention. Staring at his mom, Jongdae tries to assess what’s going on with her. She must have lost her balance and fallen, she doesn’t appear to be listening too closely to Jongdeok and her face looks like it’s gone numb.

“Stroke!” Jongdae blurts out. “She’s having a stroke.” Jongdae’s father quickly relays the information to the 911 operator.

“Okay, an ambulance will be here really soon. Until then we gotta keep her talking,” Jongdae’s father says, clutching the phone close to his ear still. “Jongdeok are you having any luck?”

“She’s only mumbling and doesn’t seem to be all of the way here,” Jongdeok says, looking up at his dad. Turning back to his mom, he says, “Mom, hey, can you look at me? Try to keep talking as long as you can. You said that your knitting club was going really well right?”

Jongdae can only stare. He wants to tell Jongdeok that her vision might be bad, but his throat is closed. Even if he wanted to speak, no sound would be coming out of his mouth. No words are coming out of his throat. Everything feels hopeless as he watches Jongdeok try to help their mom.

The sirens come quickly enough and Jongdae’s father tells the two of them to meet him at the hospital. Only one person can go in the ambulance apparently and Jongdae is freaking out far too much for it to be him.

“Jongdae, are you okay?” Jongdeok asks, looking Jongdae over. He manages to shake his head and Jongdeok frowns. “How can I help you?” Jongdae doesn’t even know what Jongdeok should do. He thinks he might be going into shock or something and everything seems to be getting kind of fuzzy.

△▼△▼n̶ ̶e̶ ̶v̶ ̶e̶ ̶r̶ ̶( ͜。 ͡ʖ ͜。) ̶m̶ ̶i̶ ̶n̶ ̶d̶ △▼△▼

Jongdae wakes up in the hospital. He rubs his eyes and sits up quickly trying to get someone’s attention so he can go see his mom. But there’s no one in the room. Not even Jongdeok which doesn’t bode well with him. There isn’t a nurse or anyone nearby either. 

Everyone is causing commotion in the hallway and one of the doctors is trying to clear the way, but it’s not working. There’s a struggle for a few minutes, but eventually the doctor gives up. Jongdae tries to get the best look he can and it appears that people are crowding outside of a surgery room. Is Jongdae in the ICU? That would be really weird…

Looking down at his arm, Jongdae debates if he wants to rip out his IV or not. He feels fine and he’s seen plenty of people do it in movies anyway. But before he can, a nurse comes into his room and immediately scolds him.

“I need to take that out anyway,” they mumble. “And while that wouldn’t be normal, I need to take you to your parents.”

“Is my mom okay?” Jongdae croaks out.

“Your mom and dad were in a car accident when they came here in the ambulance and it doesn’t look good for them. I’m going to be taking this out early, so you can say goodbye.” Jongdae feels his body going back into shock, but the removal of the IV breaks him out of it temporarily enough that he can get up even if his knees feel like jelly.

The nurse guides him down the hallway and Jongdae bumps into multiple people, including other staff that get in his space and elbow him unintentionally. His mind seems to glaze over as he walks into the room. There’s several cots across the room, all with people in various states as surgeons run around. On the right are Jongdae’s parents, no surgeons close to them.

“It’s not practice to let you in here, but I couldn’t imagine losing both of my parents and not saying goodbye.” The nurse’s voice is far away and wispy, but Jongdae lets himself walk over to stand in between his parents where his brother already is.

“Goodbye,” Jongdae whispers. “I love you both so much.” Jongdae’s throat closes again and he just wants to go back to an hour ago when he was playing video games. He’s overwhelmed with whiplash and squeezes his eyes shut, trying to block everything out when the long beep comes from the machines. 

Jongdeok’s hand is on his shoulder and Jongdae is thankful for it. Everything is far too much right now.

△▼△▼n̶ ̶e̶ ̶v̶ ̶e̶ ̶r̶ ̶( ͜。 ͡ʖ ͜。) ̶m̶ ̶i̶ ̶n̶ ̶d̶ △▼△▼

Jongdae doesn’t cope well with death. He’s a sniveling mess at the funeral and then going to see his parents actually placed in the ground is a whole other level of pain. The entire time Jongdae is in the cemetery, all he can think about is all the dead people around him.

Once each of these people were living their lives and doing things, walking around on Earth, but now they’re gone. And the people that once mourned for them, are most likely also dead. It really strikes home the fact that everyone’s time on Earth is numbered and that no one can escape death.

There’s a hand on Jongdae’s shoulder and Jongdae turns, expecting to see Jongdeok, but instead he sees a ghost. Someone who looks like he could be related to Jongdae, but he’s slightly translucent and not able to touch the ground.

“I promise it’ll all be okay, Jongdae.” Jongdae wants to ask how the ghost knows his name, but there’s people all around him and now isn’t the time to draw any more attention to himself. “I’m your great-great-grandfather. I only saw your mother a few times when she was a baby, but I’m glad to see she raised someone with such a huge heart.” The ghost, who Jongdae doesn’t quite believe he’s actually related to, pauses and looks down. “Death is a really hard experience, but I know you’ll come out stronger on the other side.” 

Jongdae swallows and hopes his eyes convey his appreciation for the ghost’s kind words. A small breeze blows by and Jongade’s great-great-grandfather disappears with it. Walking up to his parents' freshly dug grave, causes a new wave of tears to come out of Jongdae’s eyes. He’s seriously going to run out of tears at this rate. That causes him to laugh just a little. It’s a watery laugh that makes a snot bubble pop out of his nose, but a laugh nonetheless.

“Jongdae,” Jongdeok whispers from beside Jongdae. “Do you want to say anything to Mom and Dad or do you wanna keep quiet? Both are cool, there’s just other people behind us.” Right. Back to reality. Jongdae looks over at Jongdeok who hands him a tissue which Jongdae takes gratefully.

“I love you, Mom and Dad,” Jongdae says quietly. “I hope you’re happy in heaven and that you get to be reunited with your families and old friends.” Jongdeok rubs Jongdae’s back. He’s sad, Jongdae can see that in his eyes, but he’s not crying. That’s just not how he copes. 

When Jongdeok was twelve and Jongdae was ten, the two of them were riding bikes around their neighborhood, having an absolute blast when Jongdeok had just stopped in the middle of the road. There was a squirrel laying there, right on the brink of death. There would have been nothing that Jongdae or Jongdeok could have done to save that squirrel. Nothing feasible for children at the very least.

Jongdeok didn’t move or do anything. He waited for the squirrel to pass and said a small prayer for it. Jongdae on the other hand was bawling. At that point, he was old enough to understand death, but he didn’t like it. Death always hurt. 

The two of them went home and Jongdae kept crying all the way until dinner time, but Jongdeok didn’t react at all. He kept it all inside. Late that night, Jongdae woke up and heard some sound from Jongdeok’s room and went to investigate. Jongdeok was having a tiny funeral for the squirrel. While he didn’t really care about respecting the dead once they had been gone for a while, he still wanted each person to have a safe passage to the other side. In Jongdeok’s mind, once they have passed over, they are gone and can’t interact or see anything on Earth.

Jongdae knows this is false, due to his ability to see ghosts, but when they were young, it wasn’t really the time to even discuss that. There wasn’t even proof that Jongdae had actually seen a ghost, and he hadn’t even told anyone, which made it even more likely that it was just something he made up in his head.

So how will Jongdeok handle the loss of their parents? Jongdae is worried about his brother, but he isn’t put together enough on his own to handle Jongdeok’s pain and mourning on top of his own. All he can do is be there for his brother and hope that’s enough.

△▼△▼n̶ ̶e̶ ̶v̶ ̶e̶ ̶r̶ ̶( ͜。 ͡ʖ ͜。) ̶m̶ ̶i̶ ̶n̶ ̶d̶ △▼△▼

As it turns out, just being there was enough to help Jongdeok handle their parent’s dying, but he refuses to talk about them at all. Jongdae and Jongdeok pack up their parents' things, but continue to live in their house. 

By now, Jongdeok is in his third year of college and Jongdae is just about to start his first. It’s June and the sun is hot each day and well into the night. The day stands out in Jongdae’s mind because it’s also the day that Jongdeok is diagnosed with Meningitis. They are doing everything they can, but it doesn’t look good. The treatment is only delaying death which will come within a few days even.

Jongdae can’t lose his brother. There’s no way. It feels like his family has been marked for death, if Jongdae is honest. That’s such a dark and terrible thought, but Jongdae can’t help thinking it. He doesn’t even know where to go to find someone that could help him. Jongdae’s only resource that might be of any help is the dead.

So he walks to the cemetery. There’s no ghosts around. The one time Jongdae is actually trying to attract ghosts, he doesn’t find any of course. At the very least, he can stop by his parents grave. Jongdae walks through the trees and makes sure to stay along the path. 

The farther he walks into the cemetery, the colder it gets. Jongdae tugs his coat tighter around himself. This isn’t normal at all. Wind picks up and Jongdae feels unsteady on his feet. The clouds overhead have turned a dark gray color which rubs Jongdae the wrong way. If he has any sense, he’ll turn right back around now and pretend this never even happened. But he can’t. Something is telling him to keep looking, to keep going.

Jongdae only gets fifteen more feet before the wind picks up enough to knock him over. He can’t catch himself on anything and lands right on top of someone’s grave. Looking at the grave stone, Jongdae sees that there’s no inscription. An unmarked grave is like the icing on top of this whole experience, and Jongdae tries to get up as quick as possible and mumbles an apology to the dead, but he can’t move his hands. They are being sucked into the fresh dirt and there’s nothing that Jongdae can do. 

The more Jongdae struggles against the dirt’s hold the farther his hands sink into the ground. He glances around, trying to find someone who could save him from this disaster of a situation, but there’s no one. Not even a ghost or a small animal. 

Jongdae feels his head and torso drop closer to the ground and as he has no form of escape, all he can do is go with the ground and hope that this isn’t a terrible mistake. Evidently the ground is happy with his decision as it sucks him down with more force than before. Within only six inches of the dirt, Jongdae takes in the deepest breath he can and screws his eyes shut.

△▼△▼n̶ ̶e̶ ̶v̶ ̶e̶ ̶r̶ ̶( ͜。 ͡ʖ ͜。) ̶m̶ ̶i̶ ̶n̶ ̶d̶ △▼△▼

When Jongdae opens his eyes, he’s laying flat on the ground, staring up at a dark purple sky with black clouds. He sits up and finds himself dressed completely different. A solid black jumpsuit with a utility belt adorned with pouches, a small machete and a gun. What on Earth is going on? Something behind him laughs and Jongdae jumps to his feet and faces the creature.

“Oh, calm down, Jongdae,” the creature reassures. They look almost like a stereotypical witch with long black hair and a swooping black and purple cape.

“How do you know my name?” Jongdae asks, stuttering from fear. He tries to back away from the witch, but roots from the ground shoot up and wrap around Jongdae’s ankles.

“Not so fast,” they say. “I’m Irene, she her, and I’m sort of like a tooth fairy, but the dark magic version. I could tell you were looking for a way to heal your poor brother, so I brought you here. I hope that’s alright. All you have to do to get him cured is to collect four hundred points of teeth.”

“Points?” Jongdae asks. This is all beginning to seem like some weird dream.

“Look behind you.” Jongdae can’t protest as the roots spin him around. In front of him is another cemetery, but this one has a glowing jack-o-lantern above the entrance that seems to be staring at Jongdae. “That is the cemetery of souls. There’s four layers and the teeth of the dead on each tier are worth a different amount of points. The ones on the bottom are worth one point per tooth, the next layer up is two per tooth, then five per tooth and finally ten per tooth. But the higher the level, the more closely the teeth are guarded.”

“Guarded by  _ what _ ?” Jongdae swallows and tries to make out what could be protecting the graves from where he’s trapped.

“Monsters of the night, obviously,” Irene replies. Her nails run down the back of Jongdae’s neck who flinches instinctively. “Good luck— you’ll need it.” The roots release Jongdae and he spins around, looking for Irene, but she’s gone. How is he even supposed to give her the teeth at the end? Whatever, this is the best chance to save his brother. 

Jongdae walks up to the gates and swallows harshly. This will be fine. It’ll be fine. 

Jongdae isn’t sure he fully believes that, but he has to at least pretend he does, otherwise he’s gonna turn around and run away. 

Before Jongdae can push the gates open, they open on their own, allowing Jongdae to walk inside, slamming shut once he’s clear of them.

That’s just great. Everything is fine. It’s all cool. There aren’t any graves right in front of him, but there’s a path which seems like a good place to start. He carefully treads on the path and keeps his eyes peeled. How is he even supposed to get to the teeth in the first place? He’ll figure it out. 

With new resolve, Jongdae strides further until he spots a grave right next to the path. There’s markings on it with a name, age and a message, so Jongdae mumbles a quick prayer before doing the logical thing and sticking his hands in the dirt. He feels around until he finds something, pulling it out. 

Oh. Oh. OH.

That’s a human head that’s rotting away. The jaw drops open and Jongdae can’t help but scream; that’ll draw attention to him pretty quickly. But there’s at least ten teeth sitting in there, and Jongdae is desperate, so Jongdae yanks them out one by one, shoving them in one of his pouches. As he goes he counts them, there’s thirteen in total which is a good start. 

As soon as the last tooth is out of the skull, Jongdae drops it and runs in the opposite direction of the grave, completely ignoring the path. There’s no way there isn’t a monster going to that exact spot, hoping to take a bite out of Jongdae.

Jongdae runs and runs. He passes several graves, but wants to be a safe distance away before any more teeth stealing. Glancing behind him, Jongdae doesn’t see anything and he’s just about to start slowing down, but he trips over a root and falls flat on his face. He groans and tries to sit up. Looking up, Jongdae sees a monster standing over him— three rows of razor sharp teeth, beady yellow eyes and a hunger that even Jongdae can recognize.

He’s sure that the monster’s teeth are about to snatch him up like a mini cupcake, so his eyes close involuntarily to try and prepare for the sudden onset of death, but then there’s a splash of  _ something _ wet instead across his face. Looking up, Jongdae sees the monster has been stabbed by a beautiful orange headed person, who seems much more prepared for grave robbing. They are dressed the same clothes, but the person has much more powerful looking weapons at their helm.

“You okay there?” they ask, and holy fuck, their voice is so hot that Jongdae is going to melt into a puddle. “You have a bit of monster blood on you, but I gotta be honest, you’re totally pulling it off.” They extend their gloved hand towards Jongdae, who grabs it eagerly and stands up.

“Thank you,” Jongdae mumbles. Something flies overhead and the beautiful stranger is yanking Jongdae underneath a nearby tree, pulling him so close that Jongdae can hear their heartbeat. “And you are?”

“Sehun, your local monster hunting pal.” Sehun looks up through the branches of the tree and once they see that the coast is clear, they let go of Jongdae, but don’t push him away. “So…”

“So…” Jongdae really doesn’t know how to talk to pretty people. This is probably going to be a problem within the next sixty seconds, but it should work itself out. Sehun really has the prettiest mouth ever, their lips are plushy and pouty, but still very cute. “I’m Jongdae, by the way.”

“Is there something on my face?” Sehun asks. “You’re staring.” Jongdae snaps his eyes up to Sehun’s and tries to focus on what they are saying. 

“No!” Jongdae squeaks, feeling the monster blood soak into his shirt and skin. How none of it ended up on Sehun is honestly a minor miracle, but deserved nonetheless.

“Oh, well we need to keep going at least. I’ve been here a while, but one thing Irene doesn’t tell you is that there’s a time limit on each level. I got to the top level with only half of the needed teeth and she took them then told me to try again,” Sehun explains.

“That’s not good. I only have ten teeth,” Jongdae says as the two of them stand up.

“How many do you need?” Sehun asks, glancing around before walking around the tree to another grave. There’s a second one next to that one, so it’s only logical that Jongdae will stick his arm in there and take some more teeth. “Points wise at least.” Jongdae grunts and shoves his hand into the dirt, resisting the urge to gag as he fumbles to retrieve the head. 

“Four hundred points,” Jongdae replies. Fifteen more teeth which makes twenty five. Maybe this won’t be so bad after all. That seems to jinx it as Sehun is pulling Jongdae back under the cover of the tree with the skull in hand.

Jongdae is about to ask what the big deal is about, but Sehun holds up a finger, so Jongdae stays silent. Sehun is his best chance of not getting killed in this purple hellscape, which means there’s no way he’ll intentionally fuck this one up. Sehun points and Jongdae follows their finger to where a large, eyeless monster stomps around.

Oh that’s just lovely, isn’t it? 

Sehun takes one step away from the monster hesitantly, watching it’s every move. There isn’t any change in movement which is a good sign, so Jongdae removes the remaining four teeth as quietly as he can, but he doesn’t drop the skull for fear of drawing the monster’s attention to them.

Sehun takes two more steps and it seems like the coast is clear, but on their third step, they step wrong as the monster turns towards the duo. While the monster is at least fifty yards away, it lets out a grumble and starts towards them, only picking up speed with each step.

“Fuck,” Sehun mutters. “Follow me.” Then Sehun is off sprinting and Jongdae is freaking the hell out, but chasing along as fast as he can. He was never on the track and field team in high school, but he’s not slow either. Though Sehun has a few feet on him, no matter how hard he pushes himself.

Something stops Jongdae from dropping the head still, which he’s grateful for as the head’s jaw drops open and begins to speak. Jongdae freezes for a second, but then starts back running again.

“Up ahead you’ll need to take a left and then there will be a tree that you can hide in,” the skull says. Jongdae casts a quick look of disbelief towards the skull. A white wisp floats out of the skull’s mouth and highlights a path for Jongdae and Sehun.

“Sehun do you see that?” Jongdae pants.

“See what?” Sehun asks, slowing enough for Jongdae to catch up. 

“The white ghost path,” Jongdae says, sticking as close to the white mist as he dares.

“I’m sorry, what?” Here’s their turn, so Jongdae grabs Sehun’s arm and tugs them to the left and sure enough there’s a tree only ten yards away. “What on Earth are you talking about?”

“Just follow me.” Jongdae uses one final burst to dash ahead and get to the tree. There’s an opening in the bottom which is certainly big enough for Jongdae to slide down into.

“Throw me as far as you can towards the monster— trust me,” the skull adds. 

“Thank you,” Jongdae replies and Sehun gives him a bewildered look. Pulling his arm back, Jongdae looks for the monster and aims as best he can before chucking the skull towards the towering beast, who roars again once the skull hits the ground. 

Climbing down into the hole is a strange feeling, but Sehun follows him. It’s dark and there isn’t much space for them to both stand together, so they allow the other far closer than strangers normally would. Once they catch their breath, the silence is a bit less bearable.

“That skull talked to you?” Sehun clarifies. “Like with words?”

“I can see ghosts,” Jongdae confesses. He knows exactly how he sounds, but considering the circumstances, Sehun really has no reason not to believe him as they are literally being chased by monsters. 

“Well, it’s a good thing you can then, because I was about eighty percent sure that the monster would have gotten to us both and I don’t have a strong enough weapon to kill it,” Sehun says.

“Me too. I don’t plan on dying until I have my first kiss at the bare minimum,” Jongdae confesses. “I will not die a mouth virgin.” Sehun laughs, but covers their mouth right after.

“I can laugh at that, right?” Jongdae nods. His eyes are adjusting to the dark and there’s something on the inside of the tree that doesn’t look quite right, but he can’t make it out yet. “I would hate to die a mouth virgin.” Jongdae might be imagining it, but Sehun looks right at his lips for a fraction of a second.

“Are you gay?” Jongdae blurts out. Considering that death is right around the corner, what does Jongdae really have to lose in asking a mildly inappropriate question of a stranger?

“Pan,” Sehun corrects. “What about you?”

“I just like pretty people so I don’t know what that makes me.” Sehun angles their head a little bit lower, so Jongdae can see the slope of their nose clearer as it comes closer to his.

“Do you find me pretty?” Sehun asks.

“Yes.” 

Sehun’s lips are on his and wow kissing is so different from how the movies portray it. It’s not a  _ bad _ experience, but it’s too strange to fully love. But if Jongdae had to pick someone to kiss, he’s glad it’s Sehun because they seem to be quite good at it.

Jongdae’s hand reaches out to stabilize himself, but that seems to be the wrong move as his hand hits the inside of the tree, causing the tree to begin to shake. The two of them pull apart as much as they can and try to find a way out, but the hole they climbed in through is closed.

“Jongdae, what do we do?” Sehun asks. “This has never happened before, so I’m freaking out.” 

“It’s fine. It’ll be fine. I just touched the wall.” Jongdae is breathing quickly, fearing the worst as the two of them are slowly lowered deeper into the tree. “What the fuck is going on?” There’s a thud when they reach the bottom of the tree and it feels almost like they’re Alice falling down the rabbit hole.

The space is dark, but open enough that Jongdae feels safe to take a step forward and reach out. He waves his hand around and hits nothing, so it can’t be all bad. Another step forward and he repeats the motion. Sehun takes one step out timidly and grabs onto Jongdae’s shoulder.

“Is there anyone out there?” Jongdae calls, hearing his voice echo for far too long. A torch mounted on the wall next to them bursts alive and Jongdae, along with Sehun jump away from the light on instinct.

A man in a black suit and blood red ascot appears from behind the torch. There’s a long scar running from the center of his forehead through his eye and onto his cheek.

“Hello, Jongdae,” he says, voice as deep and eerie as expected of someone of his stature. The stranger glances Jongdae up and down, as if deciding how worthy he is.

“Do I know you?” Jongdae asks. On the inside, he couldn’t be more scared, but he doesn’t need to show that fear to a stranger.

“No, but I know you and you are just the person I’ve been looking for.” What on Earth does that mean? Having a creepy underworld stalker might be a little too much for today.

“Explain yourself,” Jongdae demands. Sehun’s hand tightens on Jongdae’s shoulder, but Jongdae has no clue what that means.

“You are in no place to be making demands,” the stranger replies, tsking. “You want to heal your brother and I can make that happen, but you need to do something for me first.”

“Sehun, what do you think?” Jongdae asks, not taking his gaze off the mysterious stranger. He’s already been thrown into the deep end here, so where’s the harm in diving deeper?

“Who are you talking to?” Sehun asks. “I don’t see anyone and it’s freaking me out.”

“What?” Jongdae’s eyes examine the stranger again. He doesn’t look like a ghost or anything close to it, but Sehun can’t see him at all. “What are you?”

“You’ll figure it out in due time.”

**Author's Note:**

> [Twitter](https://twitter.com/occultclysms)   
>  [Curious Cat](https://curiouscat.qa/carrotyeol)


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